1. Since it is customary for Brazil to open the general debate, the privilege and the honour fall upon me to be the first speaker to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your election. In so doing, may I express to you my most sincere wishes that your term of office will be a successful and fruitful one. This, I am certain, will be guaranteed by your outstanding qualifications and your great experience.
2. For more than twenty years we representatives of the States Members of the United Nations have been gathering here for the purpose of reviewing the international scene, combining our efforts to seek measures which will bring us peace, strengthen international security and promote the well-being of mankind.
3. During the last few months there have been increasing indications of better understanding between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, to the great satisfaction and renewed hope of all nations. It must be acknowledged however that, despite all efforts, the nuclear armaments race continues and no way has been found to solve the conflicts existing in areas that are highly sensitive from the standpoint of international security. Indeed, we see with alarm that they not only remain unsolved but tend to gain in intensity.
4. Moreover, we view with deep concern the fact that instead of diminishing, the gap between the highly industrialized countries and the developing nations is growing wider. This represents a serious threat to peace and a frustration of our common endeavours on behalf of universal well-being.
5. We must, therefore, do our utmost to encourage the now foreseeable slackening of international tension; we must commit ourselves to finding effective lasting solutions to the present conflicts; we must devise formulas to eliminate the poverty in which two-thirds of mankind lives.
6. The maintenance of peace is not a task limited to the political and military fields. This task must inevitably be the outcome of a complex process set In motion by economic and social factors. Peace cannot be dissociated from development. Even an agreement among the most powerful nations would be meaningless if it operated only in areas in which their own specific interests happened to coincide. No civilization today is self-sufficient or isolated. The prosperity of each nation — I would even say its very survival — is dependent upon that of all the others.
7. It follows therefore that prosperity and peace are the responsibility of all nations, and that each nation must devote all the mean sat its disposal to the pursuit of those goals. The industrialized countries have special duties in the face of this gigantic undertaking.
8. It must be recognized, however, that the means at the disposal of the international community have not as yet been mobilized in the urgent, effective manner dictated by the grave needs of the time. When we proclaimed the United Nations Development Decade we all seemed to be convinced that if we wanted peace we had to reduce the economic and social imbalances besetting the world. Now that the decade is drawing to a close, it is apparent that our actions have not lived up to our expectations. Indeed, the results have been exactly the opposite of what we had hoped: the gulf between the developed and developing countries has never been as wide as at present. The developed countries have accelerated their growth, and the developing countries can barely free themselves from stagnation. The developing countries may not have done all they should, hut co-operation from the wealthy countries has fallen far short in every respect of what had been expected. For example, the flow of financial assistance lags far behind the 1 percent of the gross national product recommended by the General Assembly. Negotiations such as the Kennedy Round give added impetus to trade among highly industrialized countries and only remotely benefit the others, Even in the meetings of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) a sense of frustration is evident.
9. Primary commodities, exports of manufactured goods, general and non-discriminatory preferences and a larger participation in international services — all these aspirations of the less-developed countries are being dealt with on a make-shift basis, and the behaviour of the industrialized countries has not been Inspired by a desire to create general prosperity which, after all, is the real and long-term interest of all nations.
10. The group of thirty-one developing countries members of the Trade and Development Board have dealt lucidly in a memorandum with the various specific problems requiring immediate solution.Brazil hopes that that fundamental document will serve as the basis for effective decisions and that the UNCTAD meeting to be held at New Delhi in 1968 will mark the beginning of its implementation.
11. It is urgent for us to find adequate solutions to the problems of international commodity trade on which the developing countries depend to such a large extent. It is urgent for us to adopt measures of international co-operation, so that the developing countries can expand their exports of manufactured goods, an indispensable requirement for their economic growth. And it is no less urgent for international financing to be made available in sufficient volume and under appropriate conditions in order to promote development, and not just to cover the servicing of previous loans.
12. In 1964, 120 countries met in Geneva and agreed that the problems faced by the developing countries were well known and that only the determination to act was lacking for their solution. Yet here we stand, almost three years later, and the determination has still not materialized on the international level. If we wish to keep our faith in the solidarity of nations we cannot afford to subject it to further trials. It is indispensable that the political will to act be translated into effective measures instead of taking the form of renewed pious declarations of good intentions.
13. In the concerted action undertaken by UNCTAD there is no place for ideological motivation, which would vitiate its meaning. The seventy-seven nations, united by common interests, make up a group for the attainment of clearly defined and specific goals, exclusively linked to the promotion of economic development. It is strictly in this sense and in full awareness of our responsibilities that Brazil participates in the group.
14. The increase of wealth on the part of the industrialized nations is being partly diverted to the accumulation and improvement of military equipment. Many of the best brains in the world have been recruited to devise and perfect the techniques of those armaments and the art of their application. Ever more distant seems the arrival of the day on which those vast human and material resources can be released to serve the progress and well-being of the developing countries and the less favoured communities of those very Powers engaged in the arms race.
15. The United States of America and the Soviet Union have recently submitted two identical drafts of a treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons to the Conference of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament at Geneva. We read this as a sign of international détente. Brazil welcomes this important step in the hope that a better under standing between the two Powers may result in concrete measures leading to general and complete disarmament under effective international control. Only in that context will the treaty achieve meaning and validity.
16. We note with satisfaction that the two Powers, in contrast with the procedure adopted in the case of the Moscow test-ban Treaty, have chosen to submit their drafts to the Disarmament Committee, thus acknowledging that the proposed measure does fit into the framework of the efforts undertaken by the United Nations to achieve disarmament as one of its objectives.
17. Imbued as we are with the spirit of co-operation and objectivity we cannot but observe that those drafts do not imply any reduction of existing nuclear weapon stockpiles, nor do they even discourage the increase and development of nuclear weapons by those countries which already possess them. No resources are to be released to serve economic and peaceful ends. For all practical purposes, the drafts propose limitations only for those countries that do not possess nuclear weapons and they include restrictions which are not essential to the objectives of non-proliferation.
18. The adherence to the purposes of non-proliferation must not entail a renunciation by any country of the right to develop its own technology. On the contrary, Brazil, while supporting, as it always has, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, is convinced that the measures to this end should facilitate nuclearization for peaceful purposes. Such nuclearization for peaceful purposes should include the technology of nuclear explosives which might become indispensable for major engineering projects of significance for economic development.
19. As a matter of fact, Brazil has already undertaken the sovereign commitment to renounce nuclear weapons by signing the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America, concluded at Mexico City on 14 February 1967, The manner whereby this Treaty draws a distinction between nuclear weapons, which it prohibits, and unlimited peaceful nuclearization, which it authorizes, seems to us quite appropriate for an agreement on a world-wide basis. The drafts presented in Geneva can and should benefit from the Introduction of amendments improving them and ensuring a fair balance between the obligations and responsibilities of the contracting parties, thus making the drafts universally acceptable.
20. The scientific and technological gap between the Member States of this Organization is growing at an increasing pace to the detriment of the aims of the United Nations. As the President of my country has recently pointed out:
"We must realize that the planning of our development must take place within the context of the scientific and technological revolution which has ushered the world into the nuclear and space age. In this new era which we are entering, science and technology will increasingly condition not progress and the well-being of nations alone, but their very independence."
21. The fact that human resources of the highest calibre in science and technology are drawn from all parts of the world and are being concentrated in the already developed countries constitutes another serious problem. Some aspects of this situation were taken up by Secretary-General U Thant in his report to the Economic and Social Council on the development and utilization of human resources in developing countries.
22. It is my opinion that we should consider the possibility of collecting, co-ordinating and completing the studies undertaken under the aegis of the United Nations and the specialized agencies on the various aspects of this problem of the growing scientific and technological imbalance. A high level committee might be established for this purpose by the Secretary-General, expressly enjoined to give special attention to the study of the causes, effects and possible solutions of the problem of the constant brain drain of technicians and scientists by the more developed countries.
23. This brief outline of my country's position on current international problems would not be complete without a reference to some issues which are the concern of the United Nations and which deserve my Government's most careful attention.
24. The recent outbreak of hostilities between Arabs and Israelis with the resulting human and material losses imposes upon us the duty to find the way for realistic and objective negotiations towards a conciliatory settlement between the States concerned. During the fifth special emergency session I had the opportunity of stating the position of my country on this matter [1540th meeting]. On the one hand, we recognize the existence of the State of Israel with all the rights and prerogatives of a sovereign nation; on the other hand, as I pointed out on that occasion, we recognize the validity of many important claims of the Arab countries. What must be avoided is the continuance of a state of belligerency between Members of the Organization, punctuated by military clashes and bringing substantial damage to the economies both of Israel and of the Arab countries, as well as being a constant threat to world peace. We shall continue to co-operate in the spirit of friendship which binds us to both sides in the search for a just and lasting solution which will enable the peoples of the Middle East to concentrate their efforts on the rewarding pursuit of their development and prosperity.
25. Brazil reiterates its adherence to the principle of self-determination and its staunch support for the task of decolonization which the United Nations has been carrying out since its inception. There have been major accomplishments in this area, but we still have a long way to go. The consolidation of the objectives of decolonization will only be made effective in the global context of the economic and social development of the less-developed countries. This premise is essential if the process of decolonization is to be conducted in a peaceful and orderly way.
26. We are convinced that extreme inequalities both on the international and national levels are sources of insecurity, dissatisfaction and apprehension, thereby constituting, as much as the nuclear weapons race, a serious threat to peace. My country is determined to fulfil its destiny by creating wealth and distributing it fairly among our people, while preserving our multiracial society bound together by deep-rooted Christian and non-discriminatory traditions.
27. We have overcome economic difficulties and faced serious financial problems. We are meeting the needs of our economic and social development with our own resources and with the limited assistance we receive from abroad. We do not for a moment doubt that our efforts will meet with success. Our goals, however, will be more readily attained as we succeed in translating into practical measures the common belief that peace and development, indissolubly linked, require universal conditions and a collective effort on an international scale.
28. This is the reason why we shall strive in all bodies of the United Nations to ensure that the principles of international co-operation in the economic field shall be used not merely for verbal formulations but as a guide for action on the part of all States. This is also the reason why we insist that this Organization must face, purposefully and with decision, the problem of the increasing scientific and technological gap which divides the highly industrialized Powers from the developing countries. And finally, this is the reason why we shall make every effort in order that disarmament be translated Into measures which shall effectively ensure the security and the development of all nations.